Renaissance Center redevelopment another step closer after council denies historic designation
Council members and Mayor Mike Duggan said the move to kill a potential historic designation of the Renaissance Center means all options are on the table for the building's redevelopment.
Detroit City Council moved the Renaissance Center another step closer to a potential redevelopment which includes the demolition of two of its vacant towers.
Council members voted 8-1 to reject the historic designation of the Renaissance Center, sought by a lone member, District 2 council member Angela Whitfield Calloway.
She said she pursued the designation to allow the public more input, calling for a town hall at the Huntington Place to convene the public.
“I am not anti-development,” Whitfield Calloway said. “I grew up in this city. I enjoyed visiting the towers, I enjoyed how I recalled the maze, it was kind of hard to navigate… When you go downtown all you’re going to see is cookie cutter, Lego block designs. We are destroying our history. Why can’t we look at modernizing structures?”
Whitfield Calloway recalled childhood memories shopping in stores throughout the Renaissance Center and going to the movie theatre it once housed. She defended the site’s history in a disagreement between her and council members Mary Waters and Gabriela Santiago-Romero over whether the building held a racist history. Whitfield Calloway said she remembers “Black and white kids in there together.”
She urged she isn’t specifically opposed to updating the RenCen, but those who voted against her expressed concern the historic preservation of the building would make its potential redevelopment more difficult. A Historic District Commission review could have lasted up to one year.
The move Tuesday doesn’t guarantee the $1.6 billion plan Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock proposed in November is happening as presented, but it does mean all options are on the table, officials said.
Last week, representatives from General Motors and Dan Gilbert’s Rock Family of Companies presented to council members at a committee meeting their plan to knock down two towers and bring greater public access and amenities to the riverfront using $350 in local funds and state tax capture.
Rock vice president Jared Fleisher pitched a vision of a new Renaissance Center that would anchor a thriving riverfront, similar to Chicago’s Navy Pier.
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